Damage from storms such as a hurricane can occur from flying debris and water crashing through windows and causing damage inside of the structures. Further, homeowners abandoning their homes before a storm also leave a security risk since vandals and thieves can break into the homes. The problem of protecting homes in areas such as Florida further exacerbates the problems of protecting windows since multiple storms such as hurricanes can occur over the lifetime of residential and commercial structures. Storm damage from hurricane Andrew caused billions of dollars in property damage.
Homeowners abandoning their homes before a storm also leave a security risk since vandals and thieves can break into the homes. Also merely leaving ones home for a vacation poses a security risk as well. Also merely leaving a home for a vacation poses a security risk as well whereas break-ins can occur by merely smashing existing window panes with projectiles such as bricks and the like.
In the past several years there has also been an increase in explosions either accidental or intended for commercial office buildings and government buildings including embassies. The shattered glass from an explosion has been known to be extremely dangerous and harmful to property as well as occupants and visitors.
The protecting of windows and doors has generally been accomplished in the past by using shutters. Various outside shutter shields can be expensive and time consuming to apply due to hardware required by the shield or shutter. An additional problem is that these window shields can be difficult and time consuming to apply before a coming storm. The basic shutters are difficult to connect with each other when protecting large windows and door openings. Further, shutters generally require having components and hardware stay in place adjacent to the window and door opening which results in unsightly appearances. Popular shutter shields such as the roll-down variety are also expensive. Typical costs for a lowerable shield and motor can be $450 to over a $1,000 for a typical average window of 37 by 50 inches. An additional problem with these outdoor shields is that many of these shields must be left in place in order to be used and can create an unsightly appearance. For example, rolling shields may have large rollers left in position above windows when not in use.
Other types of shutter closures have included nailing plywood type boards across the openings. However, individual pieces of plywood are usually only capable of being used once and the nailing operation can cause damage to the surrounding structure from applying and removing the nails. An additional problem is that these outdoor shutters can be difficult and time consuming to apply before a coming storm. For example it would be impossible for homeowners of high rise condominiums to go outside in order to put up these shutters.
Additional methods of protecting windows has included applying tape to glass areas to prevent flying glass from breakage. However, again this technique has generally required a homeowner or business owner tape unsightly tape such as duct tape on the windows before the storm occurs. Besides the unsightly appearance, the tape itself is difficult to remove and at most the tape strips only allow the window glass to break into large pieces.
Window film has been applied to window panes for tinting purposes and has also helped to hold breaking glass pieces together and further allows the glass to break into large pieces. Examples of well known window film material include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,514,465 and 4,590,124 to Schoenberg and 5,230,954 to Sakamoto. However, the window tint taping by itself does not prevent the breakage of the glass, nor does the taping fully prevent the glass from separating from the edges of the windows and falling inward.
Various techniques have been proposed to strengthen the fastening of the window tint film to window frames. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,189,880 to Ballin; 4,210,191 to Li; 4,319,623 to Krogseng et al. and 5,426,897 to Gazaway. However, again these prior art approaches still do not adequately prevent projectiles from separating the window panes from the frame themselves.